Taxefficientwealth

Ken’s Weekly Top 5 – Issue # 96

Recently, Marie and I attended the 28th Black Tie Bingo gala, a fundraising event presented by Co-operators and Meridian Credit Union in support of the Guelph General hospital. It was a successful event as $339,000 was raised to bolster women’s healthcare services at the hospital. The funds will be used to purchase patient care equipment within Obstetrics & Gynecology, Diagnostic Imaging and Family Birthing units at the hospital. You can learn more about the Guelph General Hospital Foundation and lend your support here. In this issue, I invite you to a webinar on how to build tax-efficient wealth and I discuss ten mistakes to avoid when preparing your tax returns this year. I also share other important useful insights. Enjoy this issue and please remember to share this with everyone in your network:

  1. Steps To Build Tax-Efficient Wealth Webinar

If you missed the previous webinar, don’t worry, I have another one coming up on Thursday. I will be hosting a special webinar to reveal a 6-step framework to build tax-efficient wealth. This framework is simple (but not necessarily easy) to implement and it will enable you to minimize taxes and accelerate your cash flow and wealth. This is a short 40-minute LIVE webinar on Thursday, March 21, 2024 at 6 PM Sharp! For more details and to register, click here. I look forward to seeing you at the webinar. 

  1. Ten Mistakes To Avoid When Filing Your Personal Tax Returns

As we begin the personal tax filing season in Canada, most taxpayers will be filing their tax returns using a do-it-yourself tax software. Often, these taxpayers assume that using a do-it-yourself tax filing software means they no longer need the support of their accountants. While most of these personal tax softwares are mathematically correct, provide “intuitive” guidance based on your responses to tax questions, and allows for ease of filing with the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA), they don’t provide advice when dealing with personal financial matters that may impact the current year’s tax filing.

As a result, you may miss important tax planning tips that may impact your current and future tax filings. In this article, I share ten of the common mistakes these taxpayers make so you can avoid them as you file your taxes in the coming weeks. Read it here.   

  1. Are You Ready To File Your Personal Tax Returns?

In the recent survey I completed on personal income taxes, 47% of you said you will be filing your taxes yourself, while another 24% plan to use a friend to help file their taxes. As technology continues to improve, we believe that this trend will continue to grow in the coming years. The truth is that filing personal taxes is not the hard part. What may be challenging is getting the appropriate insights from your tax returns that will enable you plan better going forward. As you file your tax returns this year, here are some questions to consider:

  • What’s the dollar amount I paid in taxes?
  • What’s my average tax rate?
  • What’s my marginal tax rate?
  • Why did I get a refund? Why did I NOT get a refund?

And when you have answers to these questions following the filing of your tax returns, you want to consider your next action steps. For example, what steps can you take in 2024 to pay less taxes than you did in 2023? This is where insights come in handy. As I’ve said many times, when you don’t get insights, you end up paying more in taxes than you’re required to and a dollar lost in taxes today will not only cost you a dollar today, IT WILL COST YOU A MULTIPLE OF THAT DOLLAR OVER TIME! 

If you’re looking for INSIGHTS to help you minimize taxes, then consider the Personal Tax Services we offer. With our services, we can help you minimize taxes, improve cash flow and get ahead financially. Get the details here.

  1. The Top Ten Reasons Why You Pay Too Much in Taxes

Whether you like it or not, taxes affect all of us. In fact, it is probably your biggest household expense (assuming you have a decent job or business). Yet, most people do nothing to manage their taxes. In this article, I discuss the top 10 reasons why you may be paying too much in taxes. Reasons range from lack of periodic tax planning, lack of optimization with family members, and a lack of basic knowledge of our Canadian tax laws. Get all the details here.

  1. Do You Own A Corporation With A December 31 Year-end? 

As some of you may know, we provide a number of services for corporate clients and it’s that time of the year when corporations with a December year-end should start organizing their documents to compile their financial results, estimate taxes, plan their cash flow for the new year and several other things. While we obviously help corporations with the tax compliance work of filing their annual corporate tax returns, we do provide other additional value-added services such as:

  • Streamlining and automating the majority of your bookkeeping processes
  • Doing a cash flow and budget analysis for your corporation
  • Estimating corporate tax liability and developing a plan for installment payment of your taxes
  • Corporate tax planning including how to invest corporate dollars and how to properly use insurance within your business to mitigate risk and plan for retirement
  • Corporate restructuring to ensure you’re organized in the most tax-efficient way
  • Remuneration planning to ensure you’re taking money out of your corporation in the most tax-efficient manner
  • How to use your corporation as a nest egg for your retirement in a tax-efficient manner.
  • And many more…

If you’re looking for solutions for your corporation consider working with me and my team at GMS Professional Corporation. Check out our standard service offering for corporations here. And when you’re ready to have a chat, book a time with me here.

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